The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-11-10
TRAPPING A sHADowER.
How q Private Detective wac
Caught In Mean Business.

but smiled a half-pitiful goodnight to
them. took her wraps on my arm
and we went out of the theatre. l
observed that she glanced about in the
most extraordinary manner as we
hurried through the door, and after
We had got into the cab and started
at brisk place she wheeled around
nervously in her seat and peered out
with an expression OF face that was
simply fear-stricken. Hooked 1T her
with more or lesslymphatic curiosity,
for / had long since given up any idea
of following the queer vagaries of an
excited woman's fancy. Suddenly she
seized my arm with grip of iron and
shrieked in a voice that rose above the
din of wheels:
'There he isl"
'"The deuce he is.'
"He's following u.s."
"Who is? What is?"
HE is," she said, with q tremen.
dous accent on the 'he," shaking my
arm excitedly.
"Oh, is he?" said, vaguely, but
firmly loosening the viselike grip of
her fingers. "Would you mind telling
me who he is?"
"It's the most dreadful thing in the
world. For nearly q week have been
haunted like wretched criminal by
one or two men. There is q stocky,
red-bearded sort OF person who dogs
my footsteps by day and another hor-
rid and sinister little monster whofol-
lows me at night. 1t is impossible to
get away from either one of them. and
1T has worried me until l am wretch
edly i'll as any woman in the world"
1t was my turn now. Inever was
SO amazed in my life. I sat mp and
she sank limp and overwrought in the
corner again. It seemed incredible
that there were private detectives on
the track of q lady who was nearing
her 5Oth year, had been more or less
of an Invalid all of her life, came of an
old and exceedingly respectable New
York family and was one Of the most
rigid and exemplary devotees of the
proprieties in New York. She told me
more about the espionage under which
she had been worrying herself i'll, and
finally she began to press her handker-
chief to her eyes in the good old-fash-
ioned way. It seemed such an intoler-
able outrage to see that such a WON.
an as this should be bounded by q
couple of blackmailing ours that I
kept her by my side when the carriage
stopped at her door and waited for
the man who had been pursuing her.
He had ratified up behind us in cab,
but when we turned into q street in
the residential quarter of the city he
| l., e L.
sneaking along in the shadow OF the
away, with his collar turnrd up and
his hat turned down over his eyes,
slouching along in the most melodra-
matte and absurd manner. He had
dark silk handkerchief wound
around the lower part of his face and
was otherwise all that the most silly
sensationalist could desire.
Tonight" said my companion,
timorously, ri had almost forgotten
about the trouble / have had with
the two men and was enjoying the
play when glanced down the orches-
ira chairs, and there, in the middle
aisle, ] saw that wretched and un-
shaven man watching me US though I
were criminal. It was the shock of
this that made me feel so faint"
Meanwhile the mysterious gentleman
with handkerchief around his neck
was circling nearer and nearer the cab.
The lady at my side trembled more
and more as he neared her, and as
reflected that she would have long
and serious illness from all the nerv-
Gus strain that he was causing began
to feel a sort OF yearning desire to get
hold of him. We waited at least
twenty minutes, and each time the de-
tective came nearer and nearer, until
finally he passed the door OF the cab
and peered eagerly in. I jumped for
him through the open window, but he
was very spry, and I only got hold of
his coat sleeve. He struggled and
fought like q bull terrier, and was
loosening my grip materially when q
large and bulky body descended
through the air and the detective came
to the earth with q terrific crash un-
der the burly figure of my Irish cab
driver, who had been watching the
whole pantomime and was just about
as shrewd as most New York hack
drivers. The servants, who had heard
the disturbance. opened the front door
and ran down and assisted their mis-
tress into the house. The hackman
and then unloaded ourselves. had
added about 200 pounds of the avoir-
dupois that had already pressed the
detective to the earth. We dragged
the gentleman with the handkerchief
around his neck into the house. On
the way the hackman casually hit our
friend q clip in the neck withhis clench-
ed fist that warmed the cookies of my
heart toward the Jehu. The result of
all this kindly and gentleman-like
treatment was that when we dragged
the shadow into the library and drop
ped him on the floor he was about as
pallid, washed-out and thoroughly
licked q specimen of q sneak az it has
ever been my good fortune to witness.
beamed with qualification and shook
hands with the hackman. Then ]
looked at the detective q second
time, when the members OF the family
came into the library, and said:
at seems to me that know YOU"
"Yes. sir" said the man, family.
sYou was q witness in the Harbeck
divorce case, where I was jugged Tor
collecting evidence"
''And you were sentenced for con-
spiracy, were you not?"
Eyes, sir" said the man, dismally,
''and I served five months, and here /
am back in the same old business
again like fool, just for the sake
Of earning e15 week."
ut wouldn't surprise me if you
served another term" interrupted the
brother Of the lady whom / accom-
panied home. II don't propose tc
have . jailbird bounding any members
Of my family unless know what it is
Tor"
"Oh, you can wing me easily enough
II you want ia" said the detective.
dismAlly. sThis lady amt done
nothing wrong. We're simply shadow.
in her Tor the purpose Of eettin' onto